Metaphor and the Social World - Volume 13, Issue 1, 2023

Abstract

Metaphor research has witnessed tremendous changes in how metaphor is seen and understood. Traditionally, metaphor has been viewed as a special, creative, and noticeable use of language. Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory (1980) has marked a cognitive revolution by viewing metaphor as pervasive in language as well as fundamental to thought and action. More recently, the discourse revolution has re-emphasised metaphor’s manifestations in language and its function in communication. A methodological revolution has brought forth procedures to identify and analyse metaphor in naturally occurring data (such as MIP and MIPVU). Despite these advances, in the present introduction, we identify four challenges that we believe metaphor researchers are still faced with: (1) How metaphorical are metaphors? (2) whose metaphor is it anyway? (3) metaphor research needs more diversity; and (4) how to study metaphor empirically – qualitatively or quantitatively? We conclude by presenting outlines of the contributions and specify how they address these issues.

Abstract

The present contribution addresses the notion of metaphoricity and discusses different positions in relation to this complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon. Generally, the notion of metaphoricity is used when metaphor is not considered a binary category anymore, or when the status of an expression as metaphorical is at stake (e.g. in discussions of metaphor identification). We will focus on the first understanding of metaphoricity as a scalar phenomenon. Despite the fact that the term is used more and more in the metaphor literature, it is often unclear what it actually entails, e.g. how metaphor is gradable. To shed light on this theoretical and methodological problem, in this paper we will discuss different notions of the term metaphoricity by illustrating how metaphoricity is understood and how it can be operationalized and studied.

Abstract

Metaphor has long been considered a ‘way in’ to people’s experiences, with metaphor analysis being used to gain insights into a range of psychological and physiological phenomena. However, a number of challenges arise when analysing metaphor in such contexts. We reflect on the challenges we have encountered in our research into intensely emotional and/or personal experiences related to bereavement and religious belief. Both areas showcase metaphor operating in the ‘liminal spaces’ of human experience. The spaces between life and death, personhood and non-personhood, and belief and non-belief prove rich ground for metaphor, but the qualities of these metaphors are as complex and elusive as the concepts they are being used to describe.

We explore how metaphoricity in general, and creative use of metaphor in particular, in these contexts are flexible phenomena, opening up new questions as to what ‘counts’ as a (creative) metaphor. We propose three levels at which people use or experience metaphor, show how these interact, and propose a number of methodological factors to be taken into consideration when conducting metaphor research in such complex areas of human experience.

Abstract

This paper discusses a way of operationalizing metaphoricity quantitatively using a numerical measure of the semantic distance between two domains. We demonstrate the construct validity of this measure with respect to metaphoricity and creativity judgments in the domain of English synesthetic metaphors – expressions such as sweet melody and loud color that involve combinations of terms from conceptually distinct sensory modalities. In a pre-registered study, we find that a continuous measure of sensory modality difference predicts metaphoricity and creativity judgments. While our results use synesthetic metaphors as a test case, it is possible to extend the application of our measure of semantic distance to other metaphorical expressions. In addition to demonstrating the utility of this measure, this work also demonstrates the utility of rating data in the domain of metaphor research.

Abstract

This paper considers the use of figurative language when intangible or supernatural phenomena are described in language. The case studies are derived from texts written in Ancient Egyptian, an extinct Afroasiatic language (ca. 3200 bce–1300 ce). It is argued that a MIPVU-based analysis, otherwise very useful for interrogating all kinds of texts, even those from the ancient world, needs to be modified to account for the layers of meaning encountered in texts in which a deity is being described. A more nuanced approach, which considers the scalarity of metaphor and reconsiders the conceptual modelling of metaphorical language in a culturally sensitive way, is proposed. As such, the methods proposed here may be useful for scholars working on metaphor in texts with religious content.

Abstract

Researchers studying metaphor, as a human artifact, as a thing we use in communicating and expression, as an ability we acquire, as a seemingly fundamental process in human embodied cognition, and in other guises, face many methodological hurdles. This article considers several categories of such challenges, and with reference to and in partnership with the other articles in this special issue, seeks to suggest some means of overcoming or at least minimizing the obstacles.

This article reviews Unpacking Creativity: The Power of Figurative Communication in Advertising97811084735389781108562409

This article reviews Tastes We Live By: The Linguistic Conceptualisation of Taste in English97831106267739783110630404

This article reviews Figurative Language. Cross-Cultural and Cross-Linguistic Perspectives97831106169109783110702538

This article reviews Figurative Thought and Language in Action978-90-272-1139-2978-90-272-5761-1